On February 5th, 1865, President Lincoln formulated a message to
Congress, proposing the payment of $400,000,000 to the South as
compensation for slaves lost by emancipation, and submitted it to his
Cabinet, only to be unanimously rejected.
Lincoln sadly accepted the decision, and filed away the manuscript
message, together with this indorsement thereon, to which his signature
was added: “February 5, 1865. To-day these papers, which explain
themselves, were drawn up and submitted to the Cabinet unanimously
disapproved by them.”
When the proposed message was disapproved, Lincoln soberly asked: “How
long will the war last?”
To this none could make answer, and he added: “We are spending now, in
carrying on the war, $3,000,000 a day, which will amount to all this
money, besides all the lives.”